No Stranger to Fear

“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

I am no stranger to fear and if I had to guess I would say neither are you. Growing up, fear was my only constant companion. I was afraid of everything from spiders to thunderstorms to the dark. I would sometimes wake up in the night and leap from my childhood bed toward the door to avoid stepping on the “things” that were lurking in the darkness under my bed.

There was one memorable night when I was completely gripped with fear. I was about seven or eight years old. We lived in a mobile home and the storm raging outside our house seemed like it would sweep us all away at any moment. I didn’t wake mom or dad in fear that they might send me back to my room to endure the terror of the night alone. Instead, I gathered my courage to run down the hall to my older brother’s room. Just as I hoped, my brother welcomed me to snuggle up next to him against the terrifying storm. “The lightening is way far away, Sis,” he said, but the loud claps of thunder were telling a different story. That night I got a lesson in how light travels faster than sound. To prove it we played a game. As soon as the lightening flashed, he told me to start counting, “one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand.” Every “one thousand,” he told me, represented how many miles away the lightening was. I can still recall how vivid that night was for me and the comforting presence of my brother.

As a child of God, I no longer walk in fear. I can’t say that my freedom from fear came overnight. It has been a journey, but the words of Isaiah 41 are comforting to me, “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.” God’s presence in my life gives me the strength and courage to navigate life’s storms without fear. 

If, like me, you are sometimes gripped with fear, snuggle up next to God and let His presence chase your fear away.